Warm, delicious, healthy and comforting, that’s what I think of when I make Chicken Noodle Soup! A classic Chicken Noodle soup is made by simmering chicken and vegetables, such as carrots and celery, spices, herbs and small noodles in chicken broth. The result is a simple meal that warms up your soul!

During winter, I make this soup a lot, almost once a week. Recently, I have been making many variations of it. I keep experiment by adding different spice blends in this soup and this time I think I hit a home run. I added the Ethiopian Spice blend called Berbere Seasoning, which is a combination of warm whole spices like cumin, cardamom, coriander, and fenugreek, garlic, cloves, turmeric, grated ginger root, black pepper, salt, paprika, cinnamon, and dried red chiles, that are toasted and ground together. This spice blend adds a distinctive tangy and mildly spicy and smoky flavor to the soup.

Variations for the Chicken Noodle Soup

If you don’t like spice, you can reduce the quantity of the Berbere seasoning. Also, for an extra kick, I add a couple of tablespoons of Sriracha to it, but you can replace that with tomato paste if you want to cut down on the heat. For my family, including my kids, this spice level worked great. I make a few other classic Ethiopian dishes using the Berbere Spice Blend: Misir Wot -Red Lentil Stew, and Key Wat – Beef Stew.

To make this soup vegetarian, you can skip the chicken and add some canned chickpeas, they taste awesome too!

To make this Chicken Noodle Soup healthier, I added whole-grain elbow macaroni to the soup. It not only increases the fiber and reduces the net carbs per serving, it also increases the protein content of the soup.

I make this soup in my programmable pressure cooker, Instant Pot DUO, but you can make it in any pressure cooker. Simply follow the suggested timing for cooking chicken breast or soup, and this recipe will work just fine. To learn more about the instant pot, check out my Instant Pot FAQ and Accessories blog.

Stove-Top Recipe

Making this soup on the stove-top is a breeze. Take a heavy bottom sauce pan. Heat olive oil in the pan and add crushed garlic to it. As soon as it starts sizzling, add everything else and let it come to a boil. After that, reduce the heat to medium, cover the pot and let it simmer for 10-12 minutes, or till chicken is tender enough to shred. Remove the chicken, shred it and add it back to the soup. Garnish with cilantro and you’re all done!

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This classic Chicken Noodle soup is made by simmering chicken and vegetables, such as carrots and celery, spices, herbs and small noodles in chicken broth. This recipe uses the Ethiopian Spice blend called Berbere Seasoning to enhance the flavor and made in an instant pot.

Chop celery and carrots and keep aside. Turn the instant pot on SAUTE mode. Wait 30 seconds and add olive oil and crushed garlic cloves. Let the garlic sizzle for 30 seconds, then add chopped celery and carrots. Add all the ingredients in the pot and stir everything.

Cancel Saute. Close lid. Set valve to Sealing position. Cook on Manual or Pressure Cook for 6-8 minutes, depending on how thick the chicken breast it. When I use breast halves, like in the video, I set the time to 6 minutes.

Open after 10 minutes of natural pressure release (NPR 10). Remove chicken for shredding. Use two forks and pull apart the chicken. Put the shredded chicken back in the pot. Garnish with cilantro!

Stove top recipe

Take a heavy bottom sauce pan. Heat olive oil in the pan and add crushed garlic to it. As soon as it starts sizzling, add everything else and let it come to a boil. After that, reduce the heat to medium, cover the pot and let it simmer for 10-12 minutes, or till chicken is tender enough to shred. Remove the chicken, shred it and add it back to the soup. Garnish with cilantro and you're all done!

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